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Half a century on, Richard, the former Bishop of Edinburgh, is appalled that Shelter is still needed in Scotland – where every 18 minutes a household becomes homeless.

He said: “It is crazy that Shelter still has to exist. Fifty years ago, I didn’t for a moment think it would still be needed. I thought we would have a 20-year campaign and the country would come to its senses.

"We know how to build houses, we have been building them for years. Bad politics and wrong theory gets in the way.

“It is monstrous that we have this housing shortage and people technically homeless and some actually without a home. Look what we do when there is a war on.

“We put all our money and effort into it. We pump billions into the vain idol of Trident. The war against poverty and bad housing should be at that level of moral intensity.”

Shelter Scotland answers more calls for help now than ever, with 137,100 households on council waiting lists and 6581 children in temporary accommodation – the equivalent of three homeless children in every school in Scotland.

And 67,000 households in Scotland are overcrowded.

Richard, 84, sees Scotland’s housing crisis as rooted in the folly of the 60s, which saw the demolition of the old tenements and the erection of homes on the periphery of the city, including monolithic multi-storeys – which Billy Connolly dubbed “deserts wi’ windaes”.

“I loved the traditional Glasgow tenements but they were in a colossal state of neglect,” Richard said.

Dave Guild at the home he and his family moved into thanks to Shelter (Image: Daily Record)

“Rather than deciding to rehabilitate them, Glasgow made a classic mistake and decided to go in for the big gesture of what it called comprehensive redevelopment, flattening neighbourhoods and building perimeter housing schemes that didn’t really have any amenities.

“It paralysed things because it was very slow and rather than getting into the renovation of the housing that existed, they put them all on death row and it took a long time to flatten them and move people out.”

David Guild, 54, remembers this period well, living in a two-room and kitchen in 60s Maryhill.

He was captured as a nine-year-old playing in the detritus of the tenements’ crumbling back court by photographer Nick Hedges.

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He said: “I look at that picture and think, I wouldn’t let a child play there now but as children we thought nothing of it. I do remember falling and injuring my wrist on the corner of a brick.”

His family had bought their home but when they were served a compulsory purchase order by the council during slum clearance, they refused to move out of Maryhill.

They found themselves with one of the only remaining occupied properties as the others emptied and were ransacked by vandals.

Shelter maps the housing crisis across the UK, including Glasgow (Image: Handout)

David said: “We lived on the top floor and I used to have nightmares about all the empty flats that became just shells. It was pretty creepy.”

His family were eventually given a council maisonette in Maryhill which his father purchased and David lives in today.

Many of the high-rise builds of the 60s have now been torn down, a reflection on their poor quality and the impracticalities of building communities in the sky.

The story has been the same in many parts of Scotland. Lord David Steel, the first chair of Shelter Scotland, recalls the dire state of housing stock in his former constituency in Galashiels.

In 1967, of the 144,000 homes in Scotland unfit for human habitation, Galashiels had the second highest proportion after Glasgow.

Steel said: “I went to see for myself and I found people still using a ‘pail’ toilet in the backyard. They had no access to a bath. The people were embarrassed. It smelled bad but that is how they lived.”

The top floor of the Galashiels Liberal Club contained five baths so that members could enjoy such a facility.

He said: “We still have a shortage of good homes for people to live in. There shouldn’t be anybody sleeping on the streets. It’s an appalling situation but it does happen.

Shelter's charity report into slums (Image: Handout)

“There is no shortcut. Shelter Scotland simply has to keep badgering local authorities and the government, with public opinion behind it, to say this is a scandalous situation.”

The housing shortage was compounded by the Thatcher government’s Right to Buy policy, which saw council stock chronically depleted and local authorities unable to replace it.

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The cream of the stock was sold off, leaving only the shoddy behind, exacerbating the social crisis of sink estates. This rush to own a home led to record repossessions in each successive recession, and homelessness worsened.

A Shelter Christmas campaign (Image: Handout)

Today, Shelter Scotland begins a series of high-profile events and activities to mark its 50th anniversary. But it says the landmark is no cause for celebration.

The charity maintains that despite great leaps forward in homelessness legislation and better-quality housing in Scotland since 1968, many of the factors that motivated its founders to take action still exist today and need to be tackled head-on.

Graeme Brown, director of Shelter Scotland, said: “From our early days when we woke the nation and its politicians up to the shocking levels of poverty and deprivation people were enduring, we hoped that a sense of national shame and the willingness to bring about lasting change would mean a quick end to bad housing and homelessness. We hoped that by now, there would be a decent home for everyone in Scotland.

Shelter's Hostel for a Home report (Image: Handout)

“While good progress has been made, bad housing and homelessness still blight the lives of many thousands of people in Scotland, robbing them of their health, security and a fair chance in life.

"That’s why we are not celebrating our 50th – we shouldn’t really exist and there’s still so much more needs doing.

“Bad housing and homelessness in Scotland is still far from fixed.

“In our 50th year, we aim to re-engage people across Scotland with our core messages and motivate them to join our fight and help us to campaign until there’s a home for everyone.”